Across town at Woody's Barber Shop on Main Street, Betty Moulton says, alas, it's not her either.

Kevin Coleman, who also isn't the one, has heard some theories around town.

"One person said it's the local florist," Mr. Coleman deadpanned, eliciting a snort of laughter from his wife, Lisa, the local florist.

Last Thursday, a Massachusetts Lottery official announced to the utter amazement of nearly everyone in Sterling that one of two winning tickets for the previous night's $122.9 million Powerball drawing had been sold at Appletown Market on Main Street.

The lucky owner of that ticket, perhaps a regular at the Over Easy Cafe or somebody who has gotten a trim at Woody's or bought a bouquet of roses at Lilac's of Sterling, can choose to pocket $34.2 million all at once or collect the full $61.5 million share of the jackpot in annual payments over the next three decades.

The winner had yet to claim the prize as of Wednesday evening, said lottery spokeswoman Beth Bresnahan.

In the meantime, speculation as to the identity of the multimillionaire among them has become a kind of pastime or parlor game among townspeople here.

While it's possible the winning ticket was bought by somebody just passing through, the consensus feeling around town seems to be that one of Sterling's 7,800 residents is holding a scrap of paper worth at least three times the town's annual operating budget of roughly $10 million.

"People are saying it's somebody in town. I hope they're right," said Ms. Moulton, the barber, who has cut hair at Woody's, a few doors down from where the winning ticket was sold, for 25 years.

She figures the winner might want to get through the holidays before coming forward to publicly claim the prize, the first step in a process that likely will change the winner's life fundamentally, and not necessarily for the better.

Florist Lisa Coleman said if she had the winning ticket, she'd change her telephone number and call a tax accountant before fessing up.

But Mr. Smiley said he'd present the winning ticket to lottery officials immediately so that the interest on the jackpot would be accruing in his bank account, not those of the 43 states that participate in Powerball drawings.

"I'm old fashioned. I'd want the interest," said Mr. Smiley, 77, who moved to Sterling in 1936.

Mr. Smiley said he's not particularly concerned by the prospect of a multimillionaire in the scenic, mostly rural town. Homes are spread out and separated by woods enough that even construction of an obscenely gaudy, conspicuous mansion somewhere in town wouldn't be enough to upset Sterling's small town calm, he said.

Ms. Moulton isn't worried about that either.

"I would think they wouldn't want to be harassed, so they'd move to where nobody knows them," she figured.

Whatever his or her plans, the person holding the winning ticket has until this time next year to claim the prize, said Ms. Bresnahan, the lottery spokeswoman. In the meantime, he or she might want to safeguard it well as the winning ticket is considered a "bearer instrument," meaning whoever has possession of it is entitled to the jackpot.

When that person turns up at the Massachusetts Lottery's headquarters in Braintree, he or she will be asked to fill out a form and turn over the ticket for authentication, which could take as long as two hours, Ms. Bresnahan said.

If the ticket is genuine, the winner would be handed a big ceremonial check at a press conference, probably that same day, but the actual payment would take about two weeks to process, she said.